Measured at six-monthly intervals, deaths nationally averaged in the high 20s early last decade to 12 in each of the last half of last year and the first half of this year.

NSW continues to see the most fatalities, though the average has been about five deaths biannually since 2005.

The story was similar for level-crossing occurrences, with train collisions with road-vehicles trending steadily down from the mid-40s to an average of about 23 in each half of the past two years.

Here, Victoria led the table, though incidents had with numbers swinging wildly between single figures and teens but nothing comparable with the first six months of 2001, when 27 incidents were recorded.

Load irregularities remain stubbornly around 250 incidents mark and have not been under 200 since 2003.

Meanwhile, track infrastructure irregularities, at 1081 in the first six months of the year, passed into four figures for the first time. Queensland showed the greatest increase of all states here, with its figures doubling in the past three years, from around 200 to 550.